Canadian Carnival

Canadian Carnival (1955)

** (out of 4)

Sportscope short takes us to Quebec as the city celebrates the Winter Carnival during Mardi Gras. We get to see the city folk as well as countless events like hockey, curling and dog sled racing. This is the second or third film I've seen from RKO-Pathe's Sportscope series and I haven't been overly impressed as of yet. The narration is just too dry to really work or at least make the film fun. The rather bland narration really makes one turn away from the sports that they are trying to show off. Another problem is the cinematography, which certainly isn't the greatest and at times thing appear to be too dark from where things were lit very well. The film remains mildly entertaining due to the events going on but that's about it.

As an American, when you say "Mardi Gras" to me, it becomes one word and makes me think of people getting drunk in New Orleans. This RKO Sportscope, however, shows up another historically French-speaking city in North America -- Quebec -- and an environment not suited to half-naked party girls on the street. That's because in Quebec, in the mid-1950s at any rate, it was cold during Lent; cold enough that one of the earlier squibs in this short is about ice carving.

This also has about thirty seconds showing curling. I am fascinated by curling. Most sports are a bit strange, but curling is weirder than most. I first noticed it in the late 1960s, when I saw it on THE WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS, and I thought they were clearing the ice before a hockey game began. Why didn't they just pick up this big rock? Was it a union issue?

Anyway, it's nice to look at this view of the past.

"Canadian Carnival" is a Sportscope short from RKO. It's filmed in Quebec City and shows how folks there celebrate Mardi Gras....and apparently it was nothing like the celebrations in New Orleans. Instead of folks tossing beads and throwing up, this celebration includes curling, sled dog races, hockey, dancing and a beauty pageant. It's all very interesting and well made and fortunately does not suffer from annoying narration like too many travel shorts of the era. Worth seeing and actually worth your time.

I do wonder how they celebrate Mardi Gras in the 21st century....has it changed much?

Canadian CARNIVAL is a rather dry little B&W documentary highlighting a few of the escapades at a winter carnival in Quebec with random scenes of the various activities culminating in a fireworks display on the final day.

Shown are French Canadian kids making up their own games on ice; sled dogs racing to the finish line across snow and ice; sleighs (without jingle bells) competing in a race; a hockey match with a routine number of spills and thrills; Irish/French folk dances; Snow Queens; and, to bring the spirit of Carnival to an end, a fireworks display that is less exciting in B&W than it would be in color, of course.

In fact, it's the sort of winter documentary that would have looked much better if presented in color.

It's deep winter in Quebec City and they're having a carnival. It's great to have a slice of life from back in the day. It's filmed as one of those newsreel shorts with old style narration. The people makes this good and it's better than most of this genre.